harvest rolls

This recipe came to me from my dear frend LinDuh in Westmont, Illinois. She can do anything, and everything she does, she does really well. Here's an example.

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1-1/2 cup warm water (105-115F)
1/3 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup shortening
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup lukewarm mashed sweet potatoes (or canned sweet potatoes)
7 to 7-1/2 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl. Stir in sugar, salt, shortening, eggs, sweet potatoes and 3 cups of flour. Beat thoroughly. Stir in enough additional flour to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead about 5 minutes. Please dough in a greased bowl, and turn to grease all sides of dough. Cover and let rise 1 hour.

(Alternately, cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours. Dough keeps up to 3 days, if tightly covered.) If refrigerated, allow to come to room temperature and rise before proceeding.)

Punch down risen dough and divide into 4 equal parts. Roll each piece into 12" circle and brush on some melted butter. Cut into 16 wedges. Roll up each wedge (from wide part to narrow) and place on grased baking sheet. Let rise 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until delicately golden brown.

I'd suggest having room temperature butter ready immediately. She delivered some warm to us one Thanksgiving and they didn't last until dinner. It was sad, but delicious.